Reasons
by pinksnowboots
Summary: ByaRen ipod shuffle fics. Same one as in Turn That Heartbeat Over Again, which is a collection of shuffle fics. Vague attempts at humor, fluff, angst with Byakuya/Renji with mentions of IchiRuki


Ok, so I caved and decided to try the ipod shuffle thing for a completely new fandom for me. I'm guessing most people know the rules to this style. Put your ipod on shuffle, write a short fic about a certain person or pairing in the time that the song plays. This is my first attempt at both the shuffle thing and a Bleach fanfiction. I'm quickly becoming addicted to it though. Bleach is like a drug-so fantastic.

Pairing: ByaRen (Byakuya/Renji), with mentions of IchiRuki

Genre: Random crap-fluff, angst, attempted humor-ish?

Rating: T-Very tame, but there is slight implied sex and T's kind of my default rating just in case.

Generic Disclaimer: Yada yada

Title is the next song which came up on my ipod. I hope you enjoy my foray into a new fandom. I've been lurking for a while, but hadn't written yet. Please, if you have an opinion, review. I would love to hear which one of these little drabble things are the strongest and weakest, because I've never written stuff in 2-3 minutes before, and I'd like to know how I did and how to get better.

Ok, AN done. Enjoy!

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><p><strong>We Gotta Get You a Woman-Runt<strong>

One of Ichigo's most annoying qualities nowadays was his matchmaking tendencies. The war had ended and Ichigo and Rukia had finally kissed in the euphoria and relief. Now his latest idea was that his closest male friend from Sereitei needed to find a woman as well.

"I'm telling you, Renji, a woman really makes everything better. I mean, Rukia's a spitfire, but that can translate rather well in, …you know."

Renji shuddered at the thought of his two friends in such a position.

"Ichigo, I really miss the days when women's bodies terrified you."

Ichigo was affronted and began to defend his current prowess with women, before returning to the subject of getting Renji his own woman.

Renji had been pondering for weeks, (and Renji was not the pondering type), exactly how uninterested he was in anyone who shared Kuchiki Rukia's gender. Her family name, however, was a whole other matter.

**Again-Yui**

It always seemed to happen this way, no matter how much it frustrated Byakuya. His fukutaicho always managed to test the limits of propriety, good manners, common sense, and most of all, his self-restraint. Their relationship had very clear rules, and no personal affairs during working hours was one of the primary ones, but Renji had found a very clever loophole.

If Byakuya initiated, then technically _he_ was the one who broke the rule.

So Renji had perfected a system when he was particularly bored to tease his taicho to the breaking point. The signs were obvious. He would play with his hair, letting it down more than was really necessary. He would glance over a Byakuya and give a half smile, seductively lowering his eyelids. And every time, Byakuya would blush while admonishing him, which only led the fukutaicho to play the mature and innocent one ("Why, _whatever_ were you thinking, Kuchiki-taicho? Nothing inappropriate for work, I hope?")

Oooh, how Byakuya hated that smug (and unfortunately quite sexy) smirk.

Every time, Renji would tease him unashamedly with his own rulebook in the most infuriating of ways.

And every time, Byakuya seemed to find himself pushing the redhead against the captain's desk (for kissing only-sex in the workplace was a taboo even Renji wouldn't break)…again.

**Eleanor Rigby-The Beatles**

Byakuya knew what it was like to be lonely. He was at the top of the hierarchy, and while he looked down upon the masses, he looked up to them in some ways. They could be so free with their emotions and relationships, while he was bound by the utmost propriety. He had a family, but they were so bound by honor and duty that they were more like business associates.

Renji knew what it was like to be lonely. He was without a family except those which he found for survival, and Rukia. And as all of his ragtag, makeshift family died, one by one in street fights and accidents, Renji's loneliness (which had somewhat subsided, temporarily) returned full force. Rukia was the only person who kept him sane.

When the two men connected by Kuchiki Rukia and polarized by social standing met, they sensed a kindred spirit shared only by people who know what it is to really be alone.

**You've Got Her in Your Pocket-The White Stripes**

In a noble family, the head was expected to take a wife. She should be pretty, docile, and obedient. Kuchiki Hisana had fit the bill perfectly, although Byakuya was never truly able to treat her as a trophy the way a noble wife was supposed to be. When she died, he was devastated, because she had been a companion, not just a little pawn he kept in the folds of his shihakusho.

Rukia was nothing like her sister. Neither was Renji. Both were headstrong, beautiful and fascinating in a fierce way, and unerringly defiant. They challenged Byakuya, and it frustrated him, being used to submission and respect from everyone except Hisana, who had treated him with tender love and care. But eventually, he learned to love these two strange shinigami-one as a sister and the other as a lover.

School's Out-Alice Cooper

When Rukia and Renji graduated from the Shinigami Academy, they were both elated and unsure. Unsure about the future and their place in it. As they laughingly drank smuggled sake the night before the official ceremony, Renji confided in Rukia that he was terrified.

"I've been alone all my life, except for you. And now, now I might have somewhere where I can belong. But I'm afraid. I don't want to be alone again."

"Don't worry, baka. I won't let that happen."

After the elaborate ceremony where they received their official shihakusho and the status of a full-fledged shinigami, Rukia's conversation with Renji was interrupted by a very effeminate shinigami who Rukia addressed as nii-sama.

"Renji, this is my brother, Kuchiki Byakuya."

As Renji stuttered out a coarse greeting in return to Byakuya's cultured one, he was struck by the man's beauty and yet undeniable strength.

He never expected to see Rukia's brother again, except in passing, until he was assigned to the 6th division.

**Dancing With Myself-Glee Cast**

Byakuya hated being so restrained, and at the same time, he relished it. He had spent so long cultivating a spotless reputation that he forgot how to truly let go. His position simply gave him an excuse for his cold behavior.

When he met Abarai Renji, that excuse started to slip. His fukutaicho was irreverent and challenged everything that Byakuya's life had been built upon, and increasingly often, Byakuya would find himself looking in the mirror and wishing he had the strength to do _something,_anything that wasn't governed simply by the rules of class. But alone with only his troubled reflection, he never seemed to manage it.

It wasn't until Renji kissed him for the first time that he truly let go.

**Monkey in your Soul-Steely Dan**

Renji and Byakuya's zanpaku-to couldn't be any more different. Byakuya's was the epitomy of elegance, dissolving into a beautiful, but deadly spray of cherry blossoms, which, in other circumstances, could have signified the meeting of lovers rather than the rage of battle. Renji's was wild and flashy, alternatively striking out as snake or monkey. His bankai was flashy and ostentatious, while Byakuya's was reserved, but deadly effective.

Although their zanpaku-to were complete opposites, their wielders didn't seem to care. Renji developed a soft spot for cherry blossoms, while Byakuya secretly engraved the characters for snake and monkey in careful ink on parchment.

**Lean on Me-Glee Cast**

The bond between captain and lieutenant was one of the strongest in the shinigami world. The top two officers of a division were often as close as family, or sometimes even lovers. They experienced everything together, and the more traumatic experience, the closer the bond seemed to grow. Zaraki was practically Yachiru's father, and despite his callous and scientific nature, Nemu was devoted to her creator and taicho. When Aizen, Gin, and Tousen left, their lieutenants were left floating, directionless. Even if they had never been extremely close to their captains, they felt like part of the division, and part of themselves, was missing.

Renji and Byakuya had been through plenty of traumatic experiences together. They had fought alongside each other, and against each other. They had almost reached death at the other's hand, and they had both rejoiced that it was not the case. Once they had fought each other, and survived, their bond grew closer than ever, and they became each other's support for every hardship thereafter.

**Are You Gonna Be My Girl-Jet**

Byakuya was annoyed. His lieutenant was playing with a toy that Ichigo and Rukia had brought from the human world. It appeared to be a slim box, with a screen of some sort, and small bulbs on a wire that inserted into both ears. Personally, he thought it looked quite unpleasant, and had politely declined Renji's offer to show how it worked. Something about playing music.

Apparently, it did play music, although none that Byakuya had ever heard. He could hear faint noise coming from the machine, which Renji was listening to while sloppily signing paperwork. He was bobbing his head to the noise, which sounded horribly loud and uncultured. Byakuya preferred traditional music, but he did have to admit that his fukutaicho's earnest smile and bobbing to what he assumed was a beat was endearing.

At least it was endearing until he started to mouth the words, and out of the blue, Renji began to sing. Byakuya was trying to ignore the soft whispering noises, until he heard some of the lyrics.

"I said are you gonna be my girl?"

Byakuya stiffened, although Renji remained blissfully unaware.

"Abarai-fukutaicho."

Renji fumbled with the strange wire for a moment before sheepishly answering.

"Yes, taicho?"

"I am _not_ by any means, a woman."

Renji looked confused, then burst out into laughter. With a slightly lecherous grin, he replied.

"Trust me, taicho, I know that fact _very__ well._"

**Owner of a Lonely Heart-Yes**

Byakuya and Renji had both been lonely once. Both had gained a temporary respite, then lost some of the only people they cared about. When they met and worked together, they hearts called out to one another for companionship of a fellow lonely heart. When they collided, it was built on tension and affection, but overall, on the urgent _need_ for another person, for some kind of friendship. Becoming lovers made both feel much less alone. Once again, Byakuya shared his bed with another body. But it became much more than that. Just as their hearts brought them together, they kept them together. After they collided to ease their anguish, they couldn't bear to return to a perpetual solitary state. And they found in each other someone who could understand the need, and understand that it didn't necessarily start with love, but as they clung to each other emotionally and physically until their ache subsided, they started to uncover something more than need.

Something that seemed a lot like love.

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><p>Goodness, way too many of these titles were either about loneliness or girls. Or monkeys. That one almost had me stumped. Anyway.<p>

Short end AN/self-pitch. Please review and tell me what was good, what was bad. Hope you liked it, and please let me know if I should do more of these for this fandom or for my others (Hetalia, Fire Emblem, FMA). Thanks!


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